Friday, August 28, 2009

The Region 5 Championships.....Planning



Part 1

With the problem of finding a handler solved, other issues arose. Melanie had now changed her mind about showing so I would be the only one going from our barn. Part of my decision to take Rhet had been made thinking there would be others from the barn available to help.

With a colt like Rhet, being without help was just not a good option. There was no way I could get the colt bathed, clipped and groomed by myself. Richard said he would come up by Friday. With Rhet's class not until Saturday night, that still gave me time to get everything I needed done without leaving it all until the last minute. I'm a long term planner.......and being well prepared is important to me.

There are lots of halter horses who don't "hang out" at the show because their owners/handlers think it tires them out. Since Arabian horses are expected to show on the hot side, the horses are brought in not long before they're scheduled to show.

I thought Jesse would be coming in sometime on Friday. If Rhet were "normal" having him settled in before Jesse arrived would have been easy. However, I already know that Rhet looses his brain when he's moved. His first few days at Region 4 had been a disaster. He was never going to settle in in a couple of hours.........he might not settle in a couple of days.

I was going to have to leave for the show asap if I expected the colt to have his brain back enough to handle all of this. It wasn't going to be like Region 4 where the colt had six days to figure things out. It was now Tuesday afternoon and the colt showed on Saturday. Even moving in on Wednesday, I'd be lucky if he'd regained enough sense by the time Jesse arrived.

There was another thing stirring around in the back of my head. I've not shown at the Region 5 Championships since they moved the show to the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe. I made it clear when the show committee talked about making this change, it was not one I would support. I don't like that arena and I believe the horses don't like it much either. Because of that I've done my showing elsewhere. Showing

Then there was the anonymous comment I'd received on one of my posts Selling Horses that was less than favorable. The comment made it clear that the stallion owner was making sure that everyone knew her side of the story, which believe me, is far different tham mine. I knew the stallion owner would be at Region 6. Going to this show was going to feel like walking into enemy territory.......and for more reasons than just these.

Being alone is not something I have ever done well. Being alone somewhere I don't feel welcome is something I do even worse. It was going to be a long hard couple of days. But I bit the bullet and loaded up my stuff.

By first thing Wednesday morning I was ready to go. I just waited long enough for the worst of the rush hour traiffic to be over before I headed down the road to Monroe and the Region 5 All Arabian Horse Championships.

To be continued.................

Moving In



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5 comments:

  1. Oh man! I hope that in the end you had a good time.
    This situation is unfortunate - Rhet clearly is an admirable example of his breed and deserves to prove it to the credit of his heritage, breeder, stallion owner and his now owner!

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  2. I hope he settled in easier this time. He is smart, hopefully he'll figure out what traveling and shows is all about.

    Good luck!

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  3. Sounds like a lot of planning and adventure...can't wait for the continuation...

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  4. I know the feeling of losing someone to show your horse. My daughter decided she no longer wanted to be involved with our horses right before the show season. The result was that I did not show at halter this year just performance.

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